Football Injury Quotes

I made it to the NFL and I had an injury, a really bad injury, actually, where I was out for 18 months in football. And the doctor said it was career-ending.

My knee was torn up. I tore every ligament in my knee. It was a very, very bad injury. I had to do what the doctors told me to do, and I did that. The next year, I came back and led the league in rushing.

Up until the age of 16, I was very focused on sport - I played a lot of football. Then I tore my ACL and had to stop playing.

When I read Mike Webster's file before I began his autopsy, I knew he was more than a 50-year-old heart attack victim. His file and the television reports of the death of the former Pittsburgh Steelers center described a long, steep fall into bizarre behavior. I suspected he suffered from some sort of brain disorder.

When I make a tackle or make a play and I have a slight pain or something, you're going to react the way you react.

As a former football player who has carried a football more than 4,000 times, trust me, I did not go into ballroom dancing with my body being 100 percent, with no aches or pains or ailments coming with me. When you're dancing, you're doing stuff that your body's not used to, and so you start to aggravate those old injuries.

I'm learning how to prevent my brain from getting worse than it is after suffering a career worth of concussions playing football.

I've been hurt every year I played football.

Preki quite literally only has the one foot

It was tough to quit football. But after I was injured, I didn't want people paying money to see only half a John Matuszak.

Nothing is more important to England's arrangements for the World Cup than the state of David Beckham's foot.

A squirrel attacked me. I got attacked by a squirrel in Battersea Park. They're dangerous. It's rare. I've torn most of the ligaments in my knee. So no football for me. It's early retirement now. I've got a floating knee-cap!

There was a time when I was injured and playing really bad and cut, rightfully so, that I wasn't sure what my future in football was.

When I played for the Steelers and I got my bell rung, I'd take smelling salts and go right back out there.

Football is an awesome sport, but it's also a violent sport, and that's why all of us love it. We know what we checked in for, and at seven years of age, that's what I wanted to do with my life, and I didn't care that I got hurt.

Back in 1983, quarterback Tommy Kramer got hurt and the Minnesota Vikings traded for me. The plan was for me to play, but I got something called Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder, and wound up on injured reserve.

It's one thing to be 100 percent and go out and play football feeling great. It's another thing when you're not feeling good. You're sick, or you got a nagging injury, and you gotta go out in the cold and go across the middle where a guy's coming full speed at you trying to kill you.

Unfortunately, my football career wasn't very long. The reason I finished playing was because I fractured both ankles in a matter of months.

I went to Dartmouth College, graduated, and had the opportunity to play two professional sports - I played for the New England Patriots in the NFL and professional lacrosse for the Boston Blazers. I had an injury, so I had to stop so I could heal. But when I was playing football, I wasn't making a lot of money; I wasn't a superstar.

I got Osgood-Schlatter disease in my knees because my bones were growing quicker than my muscles, and it's hard to get out on the training pitch; then, afterwards, you're in agony every single time you play football.

I hurt my left knee playing left tackle. I had surgery on my right knee.

Every time you step on the football field in between those lines you're putting your life, your career, every single ligament in your body in jeopardy.

I've got my bell rung, and when I first came in the league, the term wasn't 'concussion,' it was 'getting dinged' or 'had your bell rung.' So I had my bell rung a few times.

Ronnie Lott - he got a really good shot on me once and I learned that unless I wanted to shorten my career, I needed to steer clear of his path.

I was an undersized, undertalented defensive back. I knocked myself out multiple times running into people. I ended my career without an anterior cruciate ligament. I still don't have one. At a certain point, you realize: I've used up all I've got.